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The wind is getting up. I had hung out some washing - a two sock peg wind. I heard a plastic chair blow along the balcony, and dashed outside and brought the chair into my room. The ‘balcony’ runs the length of the building (two long rooms wide), and is used by those in the know as a link between the upper and lower paths though the village. My room has three windows. Both the bedroom and kitchen windows are shut. The bathroom window will not shut. I have to remember to keep bathroom door shut (I was thinking more of keeping out stinging insects than human intruders). There is a key in the bathroom door, and if I was really concerned about security (would anyone climb in through my bathroom window in Sikinos?) I could keep the bathroom door locked from the bedroom side. Lucky that I did not lock the door…………. read on!

The shutters on the kitchen window are shut; they kept the dazzling morning sun out and I did not bother re-opening them. The main shutters are open, but not fastened back. I heard shutters banging and dashed outside to fasten them back. I got to the door to come in. And found that the door had slammed shut. The key was inside the door. There was a large outside knob but no outside handle. Why that combination? It seemed to be asking for trouble in the windy Aegean; until the door slammed shut I had not appreciated that I would be stranded if the door slammed shut. Lucky for me that it was not the middle of the night! Sheepishly I padded across to landlady Maria's house to explain. Maria lived in the house next door, divided by a small garden area from the building I was staying in. I was barefoot as all my footwear was indoors. It was lucky that in my eagerness to stop that shutter banging I had not dashed out half naked. There was nothing in which to hide any nakedness except prickly pears - apart from the socks and undies on the line. Maria is not a smiley woman! Her husband climbed through my bathroom window. He was grinning broadly when he opened the door and gave me the key. Maria gestured in no uncertain terms that in future I should leave the key in the outside of the door.